Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Elke Beck]

But no doubt some people do like it or there wouldn't be things like blood sausage.

Don't knock it until you try it.

The blutwurst I get from the German butcher near me is excellent.

I don't usually brine meat because, to me, it dilutes the flavor. When I am baking poultry, I prefer to loosen the skin and rub salt and seasonings on the meat under the skin. Let it set in the refrigerator a few hours, and then rinse it well, and it produces succulent meat. With game I sometimes will brine it, but usually I just wash it really good.

 

[Beekissed]

Tomorrow is processing day for some of the cheap meat roos I picked up and two of my own older hens, Bertha and Ginny. I'll try to get some good film of killing the silkie and also a standard LF bird, the places to cut and such. I'll also do a carcass comparison and pics of the silkie's meat/organs.

 

[Triple Willow]

Don't knock it until you try it.    The blutwurst I get from the German butcher near me is excellent.

I don't usually brine meat because, to me, it dilutes the flavor.  When I am baking poultry, I prefer to loosen the skin and rub salt and seasonings on the meat under the skin.  Let it set in the refrigerator a few hours, and then rinse it well, and it produces succulent meat.  With game I sometimes will brine it, but usually I just wash it really good. 

Not knocking it ...but kinda doubtful on trying it. LOL

 

[Beekissed]

Just finished processing the 6 birds and will post those vids when I get all the carcasses cleaned and resting in the fridge. Got a pic of Mr. Silkie Pants' organs...only a few were darker than normal. He had some black meat but I don't think he had the breeding to be a typical silkie and have their traits. Skinning him was as bothersome as skinning a squirrel with all that hair flying everywhere.

I tried poultry scissors today for the first time...not impressed. They were good for cutting off the head if you use extreme force but other than that they wouldn't cut through anything else except my knuckle, on which they did a good, deep cut that looks to be needing 3-4 sutures. That's the deepest cut I've ever sustained while processing an animal..and that's in the last 37 years and hundreds of animals of all types.

Moral of the story: Clumsy folks should not be using scissors on joints...especially their own.

 

[wlhtx]

Hugs to you, Bee! I'm glad to see that you were able to find some humor in the events of the morning. I know this one was emotional for you!

Can't wait to see the pics/videos.

 

[Beekissed]

Hugs to you, Bee! I'm glad to see that you were able to find some humor in the events of the morning. I know this one was emotional for you!

Can't wait to see the pics/videos.

TY!

It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be and after I got Big Bertha open I was glad I had helped her from this world. She wasn't laying any longer, her feet were calloused, her abdomen was sagging and she was ginormously FAT. She was not a big eater and you wouldn't find her haunting the feed trough like some of the smaller birds but these WRs are just big, big gals and they have great feed conversion, which means they lay on meat and fat on the same feed as a lighter weight bird, with greater results. Her carcass was as big as the biggest rooster and actually weighed more. She just burns fuel at a lower rate than most and I can sympathize with that...I'm the same way!

I had to place a pad on her roosting spot because she was so heavy it was causing the callouses on her feet and her breast to have a callous as well, but just a couple weeks after placing the padding her breast feathers were growing back and she was looking better in that area. Every step was a chore for her and you could see her pushing herself forward instead of just strolling along like most birds. She's always been the biggest but as she aged it was starting to hinder her life. I'm glad I could help her and give her relief.

She was much cherished and my favorite hen of all times out of all my flocks I've ever known. I'll miss her sweet, beautiful shape in the flock...but you know what? I have two young WR pullets who have that same calm, regal, beautiful way about them and they look like they will grow into some big hens, though probably not ever as big as Bertha. They both look like big, snow white swans moving along over the grass with a grace and elegance I don't see in any other breed. They are called Hope and Grace and their names suit them well.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, the vids were not of good quality enough to show as the part I was wanting to show was too much in shadow and I accidentally deleted the silkie vid. Sorry. I'm sure you all were so very anxious to see chickens die....

But I can show some pics of the silkie carcass and a comparison with a regular DP rooster.



Here's his little blackened self and the only dark organs I could see...a pigmented trachea and a little darker testes.








And comparison shots of the silkie and the DP rooster...silkie weighed in at 1.5 lbs and the DP at 3.0 lbs.

 

[fisherlady]

Bee.... sorry to hear about the finger, hope it heals up without problems. I hate 'over the joint' injuries because it seems to take forever for them to heal. If you didn't get it checked by a doc then watch it for infections even more than normal. If you cut into the joint capsule you are going to be at very high risk for infection, and it takes ages for the joint area to heal and the synovial fluid to get back to normal.

On the processing front, glad you were proven correct on knowing it was time for your hen, never an easy decision. They sure can become special to a person, silly birds....

Interesting to see the pic of the silkie mix roo, although not nearly as heavy as the LF bird he still seems like his meat to bone ratio was pretty good.

 

[Beekissed]

I soaked it in bleach water...that'll kill anything growing there!

I was surprised at how much he weighed also...a 1.5 lbs, which doesn't seem much but he was such a tiny bird that it was surprising that he wasn't all hair. Good, dense meat that will taste much like any other kind of chicken, no doubt.

I was shocked at the enormous amounts of fat in Bertha, though I knew she was heavy, she is seriously not my big eater and I've cut their rations in half for well over a month now, forcing them forage and move more. I killed another of my flock and she was a pound less than Bertha at finishing wt, not as much fat but still pretty fatty.

No worms in any bowels, small or large, organs in good shape, everything looked very healthy.

 

[jajeanpierre]

No worms in any bowels, small or large, organs in good shape, everything looked very healthy.

Do you open up the GI tract? Someone else suggested that I take pictures of my butchering as a way of looking for health issues that I might have missed. Thoughts? Thanks.